1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, ink jet recording apparatuses have been widely used in various purposes. In general, an ink jet printing apparatus is designed for performing the continuous printing operation for a plurality of recording medium mostly by repeating the steps (1) through (4) as described in the following.
(1) A step for issuing the command for requiring the feed of paper sheet or recording medium.
(2) A step for issuing the command for requiring the feed of the recording medium to the recording medium feed unit and the command for requiring the recording operation to the recording head, which are to be repeated alternately for the formation of the image on the present recording medium (the recording medium whereon the image is currently being formed).
(3) A step for issuing the command for requiring the ejection of the present recorded recording medium after confirming that the recording on the present recording medium has been completed.
(4) A step for issuing the command for permitting the supply of the sheet for the next page after completing the ejection of the recorded recording medium or while the ejection of the recorded recording medium is in progress.
As described in connection with the above step (4), at present, it has become a common practice to issue the command for the feed of the next sheet while the ejection of the present recorded recording medium is in progress, not after completing the ejection of the present recorded recording medium, aiming at the improvement of the throughput.
In recent years, however, as the demand for the large-capacity feed sheet unit of the ink jet recording apparatus increases, it has become inevitable to increase the length of the transfer path ranging from the feed sheet tray to the recording head. This naturally results in the increase in the time required for each recording medium supplied from the feed sheet tray to reach the recording point even if the command for the supply of the recording medium for the next page is issued while the ejection of the recorded recording medium is in progress, and so it has been hard to improve the throughput as desired. On the other hand, merely speeding the issuance of the command for the supply of the sheet for the next page can result in the trouble such as the jamming of the recording media.